Welcome to our Cambridge campus

Two students in the central courtyard of Anglia Ruskin's Cambridge campus

Our friendly, bustling campus is a stone’s throw from the centre of Cambridge, often described as the perfect student city.

Cambridge has been renowned as a centre of learning since the 13th century. It’s a beautiful city with outstanding architecture, a picturesque riverside setting, bags of history and culture, and a buzzing social scene.

Our campus: past, present and future

We’ve been here since 1858 when Cambridge School of Art first opened its doors. The art school grew to become Anglia Ruskin University and it’s still at the heart of our modern-day campus on East Road. Surrounding the red-brick Victorian building, with its vaulted ceilings and light-filled studios, is a host of new facilities. You’ll find:

  • our Business School, which wraps around a tree-filled central courtyard
  • high-quality study facilities – lecture theatres of course, but also a mock law court, forensic science labs, and a TV studio
  • a dedicated Science Centre featuring molecular biology and psychology labs, a 220-seat SuperLab, and five crime scene rooms
  • the university library and open access computer area
  • cafés and roof terraces
  • the Mumford Theatre and Ruskin Gallery
  • a range of services including our Students’ Union shop, medical centre, gym, ARU Temps, and finance and accommodation offices.

Just around the corner from campus, there's our dedicated healthcare site on Young Street, which houses state-of-the-art clinical skills labs including mock hospital wards, and a child nursing and midwifery ward. 

Meanwhile Compass House – a short walk along East Road – features audio and music technology recording studios, sport and exercise science labs, and computer science/gaming labs.

We've invested £100 million in our facilities in the past five years, and plan to invest a further £91 million over the next five years.

A great place to study

Our Cambridge campus has a personality all its own. We have more than 10,000 students here on a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate, full-time and part-time courses. About a quarter of our students come from outside the UK.

As well as the internationally renowned arts courses offered by Cambridge School of Art, we’re home to students of English language and literature, linguistics, film and television production, and music.

Cambridge is also home to our School of Economics, Finance and Law; our Health Building which trains the nurses, midwives and paramedics of the future; and an array of science, psychology, computing and technology courses.

It’s an eclectic mix – and we love it.

Our courses are recognised by industry, with a large number being professionally accredited. So, whether you’re interested in English or economics, fine art or finance, we’ll help you work towards your ambitions.

World-class teaching and research

As well as our students, the Cambridge campus is home to a large academic community.

We think you’ll be inspired by our bright and highly motivated tutors. Our teaching staff hold or have been nominated for a number of prestigious higher education awards, either for teaching itself or their subject expertise.

Add to this our growing reputation for world-leading research. You’ll find four high-profile research institutes here: the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR), Global Sustainability Institute (GSI), Medical Technology Research Centre (MTRC), StoryLab, and the Vision and Eye Research Institute (VERI). The GSI focuses on issues surrounding climate change and sustainability, while StoryLab experiments with modern, multimodal approaches to storytelling. CIMTR explores music therapy and its effect on our health and wellbeing; the MTRC concentrates on medical technologies, life sciences and clinical research; and VERI carries out groundbreaking work on eye disease – and can offer you free eye tests at its campus eye clinic.

Alongside these institutes is a range of research units, dedicated to subjects as diverse as children's literature, ecology and political history.

Life on campus… and off

If you’re a first-year undergraduate, the chances are you’ll live on campus in halls. With fellow students living nearby in private accommodation, you’ll find there’s always plenty going on.

You can pop into our Students’ Union lounge, The Academy, which hosts live music and club nights. The SU also organises a weekly club night – Midweek Mashup – and supports around 100 clubs and societies.

You can also enjoy a year-round programme of exhibitions at the Ruskin Gallery, including regular shows of students’ work.

And then, of course, there’s sport. We don’t like to brag, but Cambridge are the current Varsity champions (Varsity being our annual competition between sports teams from Cambridge and Chelmsford). We have a proud tradition of sporting success and you’ll find plenty of opportunities to get involved – and get active!

Meanwhile, the centre of Cambridge is a five-minute walk away. There’s a wealth of things to do in our city; visit the Living in Cambridge page for more information.

Visit us in Cambridge

Interested in seeing Cambridge for yourself? Come along and explore. Book on to one of our open days or join one of our weekly campus tours. We’d love to welcome you to our campus.